Red Raider Gridiron: Mike Smith and Eric Morris Discuss Texas Tech; Mike Mitchell to be one of Defense's Best Players

Non-Transcripts of the Coordinators. I had a late day yesterday, didn't get home until 9 or so, so it's going to be a bit abbreviated for me today. Don't forget that we've got a basketball game tonight at 7:00 pm.  What I did want to do is do a non-transcript of the coordinators, Eric Morris and Mike Smith.  Offensive coordinator Eric Morris is up first:

Eric Morris: It's always good to get a win on the road, especially when you haven't had one in a While. Kids were excited for DeAndre and offensive line for their achievement, the receivers bought into that, and the game plan was to run the ball was good. The effort blocking wise was as good as it's been, could see some hustle down the field. Lots of positives that came out of it.

(Re. Devin Lauderdale:) Just working hard, and the quarterback is getting more comfortable. He (Lauderdale) took some things personal coaching wise and Bradley Marquez and Jakeem Grant took him aside, there were times coaches would get onto him and he would tank in practice and some of the older guys would talk to him and he's practiced 100 times better the last four or five weeks and what the receivers are noticing is that when they practice well, then the quarterbacks have a sense of comfort.

(Re. DeAndre Washington running for 1,000 yards.) It's all about wins and losses, I'd take it away to get a couple more wins, it's a testament to the offensive line and we like to throw the ball, we tried to find our top playmakers are and get him the ball and the offensive line continues to be better and we ran the ball 40 times last week, it's been a long time since we've done that. It helps Pat out and slows the game down a bit, we're not going to be a power run team, don't even have a tight end on the roster, but proud for DeAndre more than anything.

(Re. the slower offense.) Yeah, our drives are down too, and so I think we're about 10 to 12 plays less, with this style of offense we'd like for it to be up, our yards per play has been pretty good. Giving it to them on key situation and can't afford to be inside the 10 yard line on second down and that was a big one for us last week and must continue to eliminate those, but he made some throws. Pat's getting better.

And defensive coordinator Mike Smith:

Mike Smith: (Re. the injuries.) Right now just sitting and waiting, just a waiting game. Just trying to put something together and develop a back-up plan and what happens if they can't go. I've never been in this situation. John White hasn't repped since last spring, he came in and made a heck of a play in the endzone. Some of those young guys and walk-on guys are going to have to play. There's nothing else we can do. Maybe think outside the box, play corners at safety. I don't know, we're looking at that option, we're going to have to come up with something.

(Re. moving cornerbacks to safety.) Maybe move Justis or Bagley to safety, we're kinda on the drawing board. Kinda limits you on defense. Crawford hasn't played safety since last year. We had two freshmen corners, and a freshman safety with Dixon and then Ward gets hurt and Barnes plays and 4 freshmen playing. Then we got worried about the run and the took advantage of the outside. They have to play fast.

Hope Justis is available, he's one that we're going to need this week.

Right now it's just a waiting game, just have to sit and wait. Hopefully we'll know something Thursday or Friday?

Approach practice the same way. Just finish. That's been the message the last 3 or 4 weeks. Want to see these guys keep fighting. I thought they fought their tail off the last game. They didn't quit. Was it pretty? No. There were a lot of guys that were asked to do things they have never done before. Very interesting game. Proud how we finished. Got the win.

It is frustrating, even with all of the stuff that we got dealt with in the game it shouldn't have been that close. Dorian hasn't played safety since last year, trying to adjust and trying to tell him his job to do. There are things we can control, missed tackles. It is frustrating, but not a time to feel sorry for myself, just continue to work and just have to get better.

Smith on Mitchell. Smith did talk a bit about LB Mike Mitchell yesterday, but it didn't make the video cut (the official site doesn't put out the entire video, just 4 minutes or so) and says that he's not sure where he'll play, but he's going to be a big part of the defense in 2015.  Here's some quotes from LAJ's Don Williams:

"He's going to be one of our best players on defense, obviously, but he's going to be on the field," Smith said Monday.

Smith recently started working Mitchell as a defensive end/outside linebacker. Mitchell spent the first two months practicing at inside linebacker. He might well end up there, considering Micah Awe will be the only returnee from a three-man rotation.

"I threw him outside to start working on his hips and his hands and just understanding the philosophy of pass rushing and some of the drops of that position," Smith said. "But that guy's going to be a really good football player. He's going to be a huge part of this defense."

Also part of that notebook is RB DeAndre Washington talking about how he thinks that RB Justin Stockton is going to be good, but that he has to learn that he has to get the "nitty-gritty" yards.

Miscellaneous. QB Patrick Mahomes was one of the top freshmen performances last week per 24/7 Sports . . . per the WacoTribune, Baylor is the doorstep of history with two back to back titles . . .